Residents turn up for update

‘‘The state highway would remain an 80km/h area.’’

The Turangi community is still divided over a proposed development in the town that would see a new 24-hour service station, truck stop and restaurant built alongside the highway.

A public meeting was held in the town on Tuesday to update the residents on the project’s progress. The company behind the proposal has yet to lodge a resource consent application for the project.

The development would be built on the 2.9ha Parklands Motor Lodge site. The lodge will continue to provide accommodation.

The Senior Citizens Hall was packed with residents - some who support the project and others opposed to it. Zane Cozens mediated the meeting.

Ryan Holmes, from Holmes Group, said the meeting was excellent with some positive comments made.

‘‘The feeling of the meeting was really good,’’ he said.

‘‘We answered as well as we could any of the technical concerns. Having the experts there answered a lot of rumours and assumptions about the development.’’

He said he wasn’t worried that some people were opposed to the project.

‘‘It all comes down to people either wanting it or not.’’

Five independent consultants spoke at the meeting.

Jade Shepherd spoke about the planning process and said the final assessment is yet to be completed and resource consents are also yet to be lodged.

Duncan Wilson from Traffic Design Group went into detail about the traffic aspect of it and also touched on areas of concern and possible resolutions for those.

He said in their assessment they came to the conclusion the volume of traffic through the intersection of State Highway 1 will not change much but it will be distributed differently by the change in turning.

When comments were raised by the public about traffic turning off Te Arahori Street onto the residential street Taupahi Road Wilson said their assessments showed that to be unlikely - a comment which the public disagreed with.

The state highway would remain an 80km/h area in the proposal.

James Bell-Booth from Marshall Day Acoustics described the noises that will be involved with the site when it is developed and said sound would come from traffic using the site, people going through a Drive Thru for the takeaway restaurant and also the 24 hour service station.

He also said engine braking had also been considered which he has predicted to be of a similar level due to existing signs at entrances of Turangi calling for no engine braking.

Booth-Bell proposed a 1.8 metre high barrier around the perimeter to prevent sound from travelling.

Philip Osborne’s assessment on the economic impact estimated the construction phase of the development would result in a $1.5 million economic contribution into the Turangi community.

He said the project would provide 42 FTE jobs for the district over a 12-month construction phase and that would be the start of an ongoing economic activity that would generate $4 million per annum for the local community.

A further 43 FTE roles in the service station and restaurant has also been projected.

Paul Gilbey went into detail about the lighting side of the development.

Some residents in opposition have set up a Give a Little page in an effort to raise funds to assist with legal costs involved in opposing the Holmes Group proposal.